The present invention is directed broadly to an apparatus for handling fluent material and more specifically to the capping of flexible containers having a predetermined amount of fluid therein. The invention is more particularly directed to the compressing or squeezing of the flexible containers to cause the liquid to be raised or elevated therein contemporaneous with the placing of a cap or closure upon each container and the tightening of said cap or closure.
In the milk bottling industry the conventional milk bottle has been replaced by a wax-coated paper carton which in many instances is of a half gallon and gallon size. Such containers, in more recent times, have been molded from an inexpensive plastic material with the end product being a relatively thin flexible plastic container or bottle.
These containers are usually molded in relatively large batches and after the molding operation they are placed in storage for cooling and shrinking. The material used in molding such containers may be such that one batch will shrink more than another batch of containers during the cooling period. This raises the situation that while each and every container will hold a gallon of liquid one batch of containers may not have shrunk as much as another batch and thus are readily capable of holding more than a gallon of liquid.
Thus in the filling of the various batches of the containers with a liquid, such as milk, one batch of containers will appear to be full while another batch would appear not to be completely filled yet both batches of containers would contain a gallon of milk. The public will avoid purchasing the containers that are not completely filled on the assumption, false though it may be, that said containers do not contain a full gallon of milk. Thus the store merchant soon finds that he has on hand a number of containers of milk that appear to be in short supply and as such have not been purchased by the public. While the foregoing situation may be remedied by filling each and every container to the top, so as to present a uniform picture, even though some containers would have more than a gallon of milk therein, the cost of such an operation would fall upon the bottling operator.